I am in the midst of creating a TRoS Core PDF. It is the only PDF that I am missing, as I have the OBaM, TFoB, and Companion PDFs. My TRoS Core PDF will be like the other PDFs in the series -- not just a scan of the book stuffed into a PDF but one formatted and sized similarly to the other tomes.

I am considering making these tomes available for purchase. In effect, trosfans will become a retailer for Driftwood of PDF product. The process I am proposing will be as follows:

If you want to purchase a PDF, send me an email.

I'll respond with a Paypal payment request email.

Make the payment via Paypal. Once the payment has completed make a post to the Orders thread stating what you have purchased.

I will watermark a copy of the PDF with your details. I will email you a download link and request acknowledgment when you've successfully downloaded the PDF. When I receive that email I will edit your post to the Orders thread stating that the order has been fulfilled.

I will then Paypal the money to DP's Paypal account.

What I am aiming for here is transparency and accountability. Given we're in the situation where people cannot access the books or PDFs through the normal channels I want to provide a mechanism that allows people to buy the PDFs while all of the money gets back to DP. By posting the purchase requests and the order fulfillments the transaction is performed in front of the whole community. If DP ever want to reconcile what they've received against the purchases that were made then that can be done quite easily.

That's a great idea. I have to be honest, the copy of the rules I'm using at the moment is torrented for precisely that reason, with the intention of buying when they become available (and I'd imagine that's the position most newcomers to the game are in, unless they're simply using the quickstart). Not ideal, but when there's no reliable way to order online any more and the shops don't have it any more, it's about the only way to get hold of them.

By the way, not to rush you, but how soon can you have the core rules available? I've purchased the supplements, but the core rulebook is still only really available via torrents. I'd still like to purchase the core rules as soon as possible.

By the way, not to rush you, but how soon can you have the core rules available? I've purchased the supplements, but the core rulebook is still only really available via torrents. I'd still like to purchase the core rules as soon as possible.

Creation of the PDF from scratch is a big task. It's not hard to create the PDF as such -- I have a Core PDF with just the pages scanned, comes in at around 150 Mb or about ten times the size of a proper PDF where the text is text rather than images. I am in the process of OCRing but that takes time -- and it is a dull task when the Core layout contains some fairly ordinary fonts and crappy layout with text over background images. So I have asked around amongst the old timers whether anyone has a copy of the original PDF that Jake made available with the original print run of Core. That was before my time so I don't have a copy myself. If I get lucky then the PDF will be available very soon. Otherwise it has to wait until I've completed the OCRing task. That'll be a month or more away.

Edit: Potentially though I could create and release the Core PDF by Book, and then when I have all 8 books done I'll re-work the PDFs into a single download. Perhaps that would help?

The TRoS Core PDF will be ready over the weekend. I have been able to greatly enhance the quality of the scans. Rather than relying on the torrented PDF I obtained I have scanned my own copy of TRoS Core. OCRing relies on top quality scans, and good scans have to be flat. No curling towards the book binding.

So I cut up my copy of TRoS -- and the OCRing is working very, very well. The PDF creation task will be completed by the weekend.

That's great Ian. I've been feeling a little uneasy using a torrented pdf myself cause I used to play with my society's copy and then changed country, leaving me without a book: it already couldn't be bought anymore. I'll jump on the occasion as soon as you get this thing running.

Thanks for your dedication Ian. Guys, let's all give Ian a cuddle (I mean, he ripped his book apart for us):

Thanks for your dedication Ian. Guys, let's all give Ian a cuddle (I mean, he ripped his book apart for us):

*cuddle*

While not a fan of cutting up books in the end pragmatism wins through. The new scans have one hundredth the error rate during OCRing that I was getting from the bound scan. That translates directly to the amount of time taken to produce the PDF, and as Einstein proved time really does equal money.

The advantage from my side -- of preparing the PDFs -- is that I have all the tomes in Word format now. That'll make things easier when I get around to working on my own game.

Ian,I have an extra Core Book that I would be willing to part with if you would like to replace the copy that you cut up to make the PDF. I'm not sure how much it would cost to ship, but I'd be willing to let you have the book for free.

Ian,I have an extra Core Book that I would be willing to part with if you would like to replace the copy that you cut up to make the PDF. I'm not sure how much it would cost to ship, but I'd be willing to let you have the book for free.

This is a very kind offer. I genuinely appreciate it. I'll email you directly -- and many thanks.

Thanks also for your kind words regarding the TRoS Core PDF. Scanning and OCRing books isn't the most fun thing that you can think of to do of an evening. Nevertheless the job is done now so if anyone needs any of the rule books we have at least some sort of viable solution.

You should post a screenshot or two of the core rulebook so people can see its excellent quality.

You should also make some mention in the official forums that these materials are available for download. It took some searching to find this post in this forum and I bet a lot of potential buyers are unaware these copies exist.

These are both good suggestions. I will put up the Table of Contents as downloadable PDFs for each of the products. I am a bit uncertain about posting on the official forums as I don't have permission from DP to sell the PDFs. I am certain I would have permission to sell the PDFs if George answered his email but at the moment George is incommunicado. So things are a little gray at the moment.

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